From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Sat Feb 01 2003 - 11:27:15 MST
Technotranscendence wrote:
> On Saturday, February 01, 2003 12:06 PM Kai Becker kmb@kai-m-becker.de
> wrote:
>>Very sad news. German TV shows specials
>>about it since 16.30 MET. The Columbia was
>>22 years old. Has anything been modernized
>>since '81?
>
> All the shuttles, IIRC, have been upgrade several times. Just
> recently -- was it 2000? -- Columbia was overhauled. Last year, too,
> cracks were found in fuel lines. I forget what was done with these.
Some things have been modernized, mainly the electronics. The shuttles
are still, fundamentally, aging machines that are ever more expensive to
maintain and operate. They needed to have been replaced a long time
ago. Stuff like this will happen again if NASA maintains its present
course, instead of actually funding replacements* for the space shuttle
- and cutting off contractors that have failed in that project before
and have every financial reason to fail again if it'll sop up all of
NASA's resources on that project.
* Replacements cheap enough to operate that they can be tested to the
point of failure so the rest of the fleet can, financially, be retired
(and replaced) before it gets there. (Doesn't matter if it's
physically/technologically possible; it simply won't happen if it costs
way too much.)
BTW, don't accuse me of being insensitive here. One of the mission
specialists was a personal friend of my dad, and I had to comfort him.
Angry that NASA's mismanagement of replacement programs has allowed this
malfunction to happen, perhaps, but not insensitive.
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